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ICO Details

Public Crowdsale

Ended

Date Sale:

Nov 7, 2016 — Dec 11, 2016
@ 34 days

Sale Avalable Tokens:

93,750,000 ARK
@ 75.0%

ICO Overview

Ark is not just a cryptocurrency- it is an ecosystem meant for cryptocurrency mass adoption.

Update: The Arc ICO has ended. The sale raised 1,279.67BTC, worth $998,000 at the sale’s close*. This was below the project’s target, but after community deliberation, the team decided to proceed with their roadmap while offering optional refunds to investors. to any investors who wanted them.

ARK is a Lisk-forked cryptocurrency intended for broad consumer adoption. Its roadmap includes the ability to transact across blockchains, a smartcard as a means of payment, and IPFS integration. The core development team is comprised of key players of the Lisk network, including a primary Lisk developer, Francois-Xavier Thoorens, a number of prominent validators from the Lisk network, and co-founders from Crypti.

The development team created ARK as a faster-moving and consumer-friendly version of Lisk, a javascript-based cryptocurrency designed as a platform for distributed applications. ARK implements the following key features.

SmartBridge: enabling cross blockchain communication

SmartBridge is one of the novel aspects of ARK. One of Lisk’s goals with sidechains was to allow other distributed applications to have their own chains but stay connected to the Lisk ecosystem. Instead of using sidechains, ARK has SmartBridge, which enables other blockchains to send special messages to and through ARK. Someone could issue an ARK transaction using Ethereum or trigger an Ethereum smart contract from Bitcoin through ARK–once Bitcoin and Ethereum become SmartBridge compatible.

ARK accomplishes this by supporting encoded listeners: special nodes that listen to other chains specifically for transactions that bear ARK-compatible messages. These nodes can take the contents of those messages and execute them–including transactions on other chains. Presumably, the messages themselves are executable transactions that nodes can easily parse and relay.

This could have a number of applications in the emerging cryptocurrency industry.

One catch is that ARK won’t be able to speak with every chain immediately. Instead, it will support others in developing these encoded listeners specific to other sets of chains. Other services would develop encoded listeners for their customers or create cross-blockchain payment schemes that others could use for a fee. SmartBridge is the underlying technology that protects information and allows it to migrate from one chain to another–the job of another application to make use of that information.

Other chains can be made compatible with SmartBridge through a couple lines of code the ARK team has developed. These can be easily put into a new blockchain or implemented on an existing chain through a fork.

There are a number of open questions, including how trusted encoded listeners need to be, the escrow feature for currency swaps, the integration with IPFS, and the price feeds for cross-chain transfers. At time of writing, a number of technical details were still being reviewed by the community. The ARK team made their initial code available on November 12th.

What is its role on the platform?

ARK tokens are used as a means of payment on the Ark network. ARK tokens also bear data messages across the network, similar to the Omni protocol. Finally, ARK tokens are used to pay transaction fees.

Transaction fees are currently set at .1 ARK per transaction, with additional fees for voting, multi-sig, and registering a delegate. This is similar to Lisk’s fee structure.

How is the token distributed?

The supply of ARK tokens is capped at 125 million. All 125 million tokens will be seeded into the genesis block.

People can participate using Lisk or BTC–or they can use shapeshift to participate using any coins.

What is the price?

Participants in the Token Exchange buy a stake in the ARK network proportional to their contribution to the total funds raised during the exchange period.

There are several bonus periods that impact one’s proportional share, which are explained in the Bitcointalk post.

How does one participate?

To participate, sign in here. LSK or BTC can be exchanged for a stake in the ARK network. Other cryptocurrencies can be converted into BTC using Shapeshift. LSK contributions are capped at 22 Million LSK [22% of the Lisk supply]. There is no cap on Bitcoin or coins contributed through Shapeshift.

When will the token be distributed?

If the ARK Token Exchange Campaign reaches its funding goal of 2000BTC total valuation, ARK tokens will be distributed at the time the genesis block is forged, tentatively set for Q1 2017. If the funding goal is not reached, contributions will be returned to participants in the form of a full refund.

How will funds be used?

24 hours after the conclusion of the token exchange, 20% of the funds will be released from escrow to the ARK development team. These initial funds will be used to pay for corporate formation fees, early developer hiring, the organization of a legal team, and other business related payments.

The remaining funds will be used to build the ARK network, develop SmartBridge links with other blockchain networks, manufacture Smartcards, and promote ARK services.

What is the project timeline?

The Ark founding team includes several developers involved in the creation of the Crypti and Lisk networks as well as many Blockchain enthusiasts and active members of the Lisk network. Francois-Xavier Thoorens was a core developer of Lisk and co-founder/CTO of Donat.io–a platform for collecting donations for parishes. Mike Doty, has experience in mechanical engineering and helped co-found Crypti, a predecessor of Lisk. The Board and other members include many Lisk nodes, who have the infrastructure to provide immediate security to the network.

Smith + Crown does not collect money or bounties for posting these announcements. All of Smith + Crown’s announcements for ICOs should not be construed as investment advice or an endorsement. In addition, some of the information contained above may be changed after we posted this; we urge the reader to read all source material before investing or passing judgment. If you see anything that has become obsolete, let us know.

*Smith + Crown calculates ICO valuations using a standardized method. Ark reports a different valuation on their website because they use a different method.

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